2019 could usher in enormous changes for Apple’s Mac

“2019 is shaping up to be a big year for the Mac, and I don’t just mean a year where there are a bunch of new Mac models released, along with a macOS update, like almost every other year,” Jason Snell writes for Macworld. “This could be the year that everything changes. It’s potentially the most tumultuous year since the transition from the original Mac OS to Mac OS X.”

Snell writes, “If the Mac is about to undergo a transition to Apple-designed ARM processors, it might make sense for Apple to keep the MacBook Pro where it is, a known quantity designed to received the latest Intel processor generations, while it makes changes in other areas.

Snell writes, “I’m not convinced this is the year Apple will begin making the move to ARM, but if it does, my guess is that it will start with a new version of the 12-inch MacBook, which hasn’t been updated since 2017 and is still on its very first overall hardware design generation.”

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I’ll believe the Mac Pro when and if we see it, and after the last one, I’m not going to be early adopting. It would be a huge mistake for Apple to drop Windows virtualization, too. ARM is a great architecture, but at present it would break more than it propels, and I don’t know that developers are all that enthusiastic about jumping through Apple’s hoops anymore. Not all change is useful change, I guess time will tell.

Just seems like the Air would have been the perfect machine to go Arm if you move the MacBooks it starts to immediately make all Intel Macs perceptively look like yesterdays platform and thus scare off potential buyers, whereas the Air could easily have been presented as an additional platform that bridges iPad and Mac until things ta least develop further and obscure true intentions, indeed allow both options to have a future depending upon reaction.

I need to agree with the editor on this and this year or next, are the years I think we’ll see it. Anyone on this chat commenting on the difficulties and implausibly of Apple switching away from Intel to A-series chips to power the next Mac Pro or any future Mac, need to keep this in mind. First, Apple has done this exact same thing, not once, but twice. And Apple is the only manufacturer that has extensive experience in exactly this type of work. Each time was a complete disruption to the market and put Apple further ahead from a performance perspective. Second, when Apple switched from Power PC to Intel, it was part of their original plan and was architected from the beginning, in parallel, and in secrecy for years before anyone even knew what happened, Steve stated that in his presentation….so even though the market was caught off guard, the engineers had already worked out the bugs by the time the announcement was made. And third, notice how Apple has waited while the A-series performance announcements have been incrementally fed to us, driving interest and praise, but in a sudtle manner. If you think they don’t have an A-series already blowing the doors off the best Intel has to offer in the lab, then you’ve got the blinders on. Apple can make the technical jump when they’re ready, the key if getting their customers and the tech world onboard….these incremental releases and comparisons to traditional PC performance are all part of preparing the hearts and minds of the masses (subconsciously) for their future. Guys, this is classic Apple at it’s best.

Jobs at his best. No nonsense, get down to business and make perfect sense. Contrast that to today’s milk toast presentations, and it is apparent why Apple is struggling — not as a revenue generating behemoth (which it is), but as a visionary company communicating Jobsian-style with its base.

Unfortunately, he is gone and we have to rely on Cook that releases buggy software on launch, bent products, updated products missing the Christmas shopping season and promised products like the wireless charger that simply vanished.

Certainly, I am hoping the transition will take place for advancement of Apple computing and software developers hopefully are already notified and preparing for the change.

We shall see, but somehow I don’t have the same good feeling now as opposed to when Jobs ran the show…

Of course, it must be said that my OWN track record is rather pitiful. I spend my days at MDN as a complainer. It’s all I have left in me. Sad but true. Tim Cook is still pathetic though, but not as pathetic as me!

What comes out loud and clear, not only from this clip but all other presentations by Jobs including the one that announced the first iPhone, is how proud he was about Apple’s achievement. It shows that he was always eager to please and excite Apple’s customers and fans. He seldom glanced at the scripts but it was obvious that everything he was presenting was in his head. That made it very powerful and convincing. He talks openly about the future, roadmaps, and thoughts behind them etc etc. as he “understood” the technology. He did actually lead what Apple was doing. This, combined with his showmanship, made us look forward to every one of his keynote presentations. We truly did lose the giant, not just of Apple, but the industry as a whole.

This changing architecture thing will give all potential new Mac Pro pro buyers pause. They might spend a bloody fortune on something that has a much shorter shelf life than previous cheese grater Mac Pro’s. And they aren’t going to sit around for years waiting for all the disparate parts and pieces to catch up as what happened to FCP X. Suddenly the “lowly” but stable PC Workstation again is the sure bet.